TerrorismDNA of Paris attacks’ mastermind not on discarded suicide vest

French police found no DNA traces of Salah Abdeslam, the fugitive terror suspect who helped mastermind the 13 November Paris attacks, on a suicide belt they thought he discarded in Paris. Another unidentified DNA found on two vests could be that of the bomb maker.

French police investigators have confirmed that the DNA of Salah Abdeslam, one of the terorsts involved in the 13 November terrorist attacks in Paris, was not on an unused suicide belt which was discarded in a Paris rubbish bin. The revalation raises more questions about who was involved in the attacks.

The Local reports that DNA belonging to Bilal Hadfi, one of the suicide bombers who died outside the Stade de France, was found on the used belt.

The French police also said that unidentified DNA was found on the explosive vest used by Brahim Abdeslam, Salah’s brother, who blew himself up on the boulevard Voltaire. The same unknown DNA was also found at a flat in the Belgian town of Auvelais, rented under a false name and used by some of the terrorists.

French media suggested that the unidentified DNA could belong to an unknown bomb maker.

The Local notes that the suicide vest was found in Montrouge, a suburb South of Paris, not far from where investigators located Abdeslam’s mobile phone signal on the night of the attacks.

Investigators say that Abdeslam drove two suicide bombers to the Stade de France football stadium, but then appeared to have second thoughts about launching an attack in the 18th arrondissement, and took the metro. He spent the rest of the night walking around the Montrouge-Châtillon-Bagneux district from where he phoned his cousin, telling him he was “in the sxxx”.

Two of his friends, Mohamed Amri and Hamza Attou, then drove from Brussels and picked him up the following morning, and drove him back to Brussels.

He is still at large.

Investigators told AFP that although his DNA was not found on the discarded vest, one should not “draw conclusions” from this, and that they cannot rule out the possibility that he wore it but no left no genetic traces.

It was speculated the heft Europe and went back to Syria, but the Belgian police earlier this week received a tip that he was seen in a train station in the Belgian town of Genk.